What happens when PHP’s file_get_contents() function encounters a 301 Redirect header? I thought I could find out by going to the PHP documentation, but I couldn’t find anything. So instead, I set up a simple test myself.

Just made a simple script that echos file_get_contents() and pointed it to a URL that I know has a 301 redirect. What happened? It followed it.

Now I’m not sure how many redirects it will follow (most environments have a limit to prevent infinite loops of one 301 redirect back to another), but by default file_get_contents() DOES follow redirects.

Hope that helps anyone else out there that was curious!

About Shane
Shane is the creator of
Page Speed Analytics tool MachMetrics. You can follow his entrepreneurial activities on his blog SideProjectProfit